Destroying The American Character

Wednesday, June 17, 2026

Fox carried a story last Saturday about “guaranteed income” programs around the nation and groups pushing to make it permanent and national.  The amount of gobblity-gook spewed by the proponents of this scheme is immense and the fog of that noise is extremely difficult to penetrate.  It all sounds lovely until you get to that one major sticking point.

The Economic Security Project (the subject of the piece):

“Government agencies should also explore public funding mechanisms beyond philanthropy; options can range from dedicated local taxes to shifting affordability-focused investments into direct cash supports,” the organization said.

“Beyond philanthropy…,” there’s your tell.  They want to see the funding of these projects move from donations to taking.  Such a move changes the entire nature of such a project.  No longer is the project about people of good and charitable character wishing to help people on hard times.  Suddenly the program is about the taking of money from all that have it by the use of the government force to distribute it to those that don’t have it, for whatever reason.  The idea of charity is no longer part of the equation.

Charity is already on the decline in this nation, “Overall, the number of US households that annually give to charity declined from 66% in 2000 to less than 50% in 2018.”  The net effect of such a program, funded by taxes, would be to reduce the charitable impulses of the American people even further.  Why should we donate to help those less fortunate than us when the government is already taking our money to do so?  This would not make America a better place.  It would make people more selfish.

Does this mean I do not care for the impoverished?  Far from it.  It means I care about how the impoverished are provided for.  I want it to be done in a way that makes Americans better, not worse – more giving, not less so.

When it comes to these matters, especially in church circles, I hear a lot about “justice.”  People say it is “not just” that some people have a lot and some people have little.  But is it just when you forcibly take from someone to balance the scales?  I think not – that’s theft, even if that force is the force of government.  (The use of tax dollars should be reserved solely for the benefit of all, not a select group.)  Justice can only be achieved when those that have plenty willfully give to those that have little.  That’s charity.

The best, and only right, way to achieve the desired goal is to help Americans become more charitable – not less.

The King James Bible famously uses “charity” as a synonym for “love” in its translation of I Corinthians 13.  I don’t want to get wrapped up in the linguistics of the whole thing, but that is deeply instructive.  Do we want a more or less loving America?  I hope everyone says more.  In which case we must promote charity.

Do I want “justice?” Yes, of course.  But I want charity more.  It matters how we get to “justice.”